Many proposals have been made for the construction of a cup containing a single serving of a beverage concentrate material. A sealed container within the cup will contain the beverage concentrate, and, when the sealed container is opened, and water, either hot or cold, or other mix, is added to the cup a single serving of beverage, in the cup is provided ready for consumption. Such cups have many advantages over other forms of dispensing servings of beverage. They may be used in a wide variety of locations such as offices, barber shops, and at sporting events where permanent snack bar facilities are not available, or in emergency situations, or in any other situation where it is desired to provide a large number of servings of beverages without any facilities beyond the provision of water or mix.
Such cups may be manufactured in large quantities, each containing a single portion of beverage concentrate hermetically sealed and therefore capable of being stored for an extended shelf life. Such cups may be nested and packaged in bulk and shipped to the location as required.
Examples of such cups are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,561,664, 3,407,922, 2,972,406, 1,889,111, 3,186,850.
A particularly advantageous form of such single serving cup is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,220 assigned to Insta Cup Incorporated. In this form of cup, the container for the beverage concentrate is made of a material which will withstand the application of hot or boiling water without contaminating the beverage. In this way, it is possible for the container to be placed in the bottom of the cup, and to remain there while the beverage is consumed. The top of the container is open, and is sealed with any suitable removable seal such as a metallic foil material. All that is then necessary is to simply tear away the top seal, and add water or other mix.
The container for the beverage concentrate is retained within the cup by engagement with a lip formed in the side wall at the lower end of the cup. It can therefore be inserted, after the container has been filled, and simply retained by pressing it past the lip thereby making a snap fit in the bottom of the cup.
This form of cup lends itself particularly well to automated manufacturing and filling techniques. Various problems are present however in such automated filling proceedures. For example, in order to provide a variety of different beverages, it is necessary that containers be filled with different beverage concentrates. In order to provide a product having a wide sales appeal it is like-wise necessary that the beverage concentrates be of the highest quality and maintain strict standards. Single servings of such beverage are however provided by very small quantities of for example powdered beverage mix materials. Such materials vary in consistancy some being a very fine powder and others being more granular, and the handling of such very small quantities of beverage concentrate mixes, at high speeds, and achieving accurate measured volumes to maintain standards of quality presents a number of serious difficulties.
Clearly, in order for the whole proceedure to be economically sound, the concentrate containers must be filled and then inserted in the cups at a high rate of production, without human intervention.